Holy Cross Mathematics and Computer Science

MONT 102N -- Modeling the Environment

Syllabus and Schedule

Course syllabus (.pdf)
Detailed course schedule (revised November 3)
Natural World Cluster Common Events are listed in the course syllabus (see above)

Examples, Class Notes, Etc.

Study/discussion questions on Collapse
A (restored) group of moai from Easter Island
A Mayan palace from the city of Palenque
A Mayan pyramidal temple from the city of Palenque
The Mayan ``ball court'' in the city of Copan
The ``hoop'' in a Mayan ball court
A Mayan observatory(?) from the city of Caracol
A page from the Dresden Codex -- solar and lunar eclipse table
A Mayan ruler at war (reproduction of a mural from Bonampak)
Examples for class on Friday, September 9.
Survey on New England landscapes over time and a related article with better versions of some of the graphics -- background for Harvard Forest trips and Paper 2 (see below).
New York Times article (2010) on melting of Greenland ice sheet.
A "crash course" on Excel and spreadsheet computations for use on Project 2.
EPA ``executive survey'' on greenhouse gas emissions 1990--2009.
Background on Florida lake ecosystems.
Project 2 Essays
Another Project 2 Essay
Geometric meaning of the correlation coefficient
Example for class 11/9 -- fitting a power law model
Compartment model example -- class on 11/28
Solutions for Final Exam

Assignments

Notes: In the following assignments,

``GB'' means They Say, I Say by Graff and Birkenstein
``LH'' means our main mathematical text, Quantitative Reasoning and the Environment by Langkamp and Hull.

For Friday, September 9, read pages 1 - 51 of GB and do Exercise 2 on page 15 (using the template given there). Create a Word .doc file containing your (very) short essay and submit by email to jlittle@holycross.edu by 10pm on Thursday, September 8. We will discuss some of these essays in class on Friday. (This will not be a graded assignment)
Paper 1 -- due by email, no later than 5:00pm on Friday, September 16.
Group Project 1 -- assignment and map -- due: in class, Wednesday, September 21.
Problem Set 1 -- due: in class, Friday, September 23.
- LH Chapter 1: 4,6,8,10,15,22,23,24,33,38,39.
- LH Chapter 2: 2,6,8,14,17,18,31,35,36,38,43,48.
Group Project 2 -- due: in class, Wednesday, September 28.
Group Project 3 and US energy flow graph -- due: in class, Friday, October 7.
Problem Set 2 -- due: in class, Friday, October 7.
- LH Chapter 3: 1,4,8,11,17,20.
Problem Set 3 -- due: in class, Friday, October 21.
- LH Chapter 4: 3AB,9,11,16,17abde,19abdef.
Instructions for Lab Day on Least Squares Regression, October 19.
Paper 2 -- due by email, no later than 5:00pm on Friday, November 4.
Group Project 4 and broiler chicken production graph -- due: in class, Monday, November 7.
Problem Set 4 -- due: in class, Friday, November 11.
- LH Chapter 5: 1,4,5,9,10,24 (use Excel and omit part b).
- LH Chapter 6: 3,6,14 (use Excel).
Summary Project on function modeling and data set -- due: Wednesday, November 16.
Final Group Project and model spreadsheet -- due: Monday, December 5.
Information on ``debate'' assignment for final week of classes.

Information and Announcements

Have a happy holiday season and a great semester break!

Academic Support for Students at Holy Cross

Overall information: Academic Services and Learning Resources
Support Services for Students Contact: Tina Chen (Director) x2713.
Academic workshop schedule for Fall 2009
The Writer's Workshop (In addition to the locations in Dinand Library, Stein, and Smith, check the Montserrat Moodle page to see when Writer's Workshop tutors will be offering sessions in Wheeler, Hanselman, and Mulledy. Contact: Elaine Hayes (Director) x3648.
Holy Cross Libraries -- Contact: Patty Porcaro (Head of Reader Services), x3533.
Counseling Center -- Office: Hogan 207, x3363.
Career Planning Center -- Office: Hogan 203, x3880.

Downloading Information

The links for assignments and other handouts shown above with the notation (.pdf file) lead to documents in PDF format. To read and print these, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. This is available at no cost from Adobe.

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Last modified: December 15, 2011